Before the introduction of modern absorbent diapers, a combination of outer plastic pants and washable, absorbent inner diapers were used to collect and retain body exudates from babies. The inner diapers were frequently of cotton or other similar absorbent material and were held in place using safety pins.
Such products have been largely replaced by disposable absorbent diapers. A conventional modern diaper structure may include a backsheet, a topsheet and an absorbent core between the topsheet and backsheet, as well as many other components such as elasticated cuffs, stretchable regions, and various other components intended in improve performance. Such conventional diapers may be provided with a front waist region and a back waist region that are joined by a carer to form a waistband. An alternative configuration is the “pants-type” diapers which has the front waist region and back waist region already joined in the product as sold—such training pants can be put on in a similar way to conventional underwear.
Similar structures are known for adult incontinence products and other similar uses.
A problem with such conventional absorbent articles is to deal with body emissions that are not liquid, including for example BM.
In order to try to minimize the escape of BM and reduce soiling of the skin by BM trapped in the diaper, apertures have been provided in the topsheet to allow feces to pass into a void space between the topsheet and underlying layers of the diaper. However, such apertures can be difficult to position during application of the absorbent article and are particularly difficult to maintain in position as the article is worn. In spite of many different attempts, prior art diapers with such apertures tend not to have good performance.
A prior proposal is made by U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,663 in which a protective article for bowel incontinence is described. The protective article includes a double panel pouch at the rear of the article suspended from the waistband. An elasticized slit is provided on the inner panel of the pouch adjacent to the wearer's anus to admit fecal matter directly into the pouch.
However, articles including such a separate pouch are much more difficult and expensive to manufacture than conventional diapers since additional layers need to be mounted and aligned.
A more recent and more successful diaper with an opening is described in European Patent Publication EP1201212A2. Elastic regions extend longitudinally on either side of a central opening which provides a passage to an integral void space for receiving body exudates.
However, such a diaper is still not straightforward to manufacture in view of the number of different components that need to be brought together and aligned.